jam25mack

How far is that? They're doable for short haul, its just long haul that you are best off avoiding / drugging yourself unconscious for.

mission

approx 4 hrs from Houston to SJO...which i guess isn't too bad...however i checked the layover time in Toronto and it's frigging 7 hrs

scrubbedexpat141

You need to get a map if you think Toronto is a sensible route to San Jose from Dubai....

mission

i have looked at loads of potential routes from here to San Jose and regardless of which airport i connect from in the US the total flight time (including layovers) is from 29 hrs upwards - so i don't think it really makes much difference from which airport in the US i connect.....it's the no of layover hrs that are more the driving factor.

scrubbedexpat141

It sounds like a stupid place to go.

British Airways BA106
7h 45
01:30DXB Dubai
06:15LHR London Heathrow

British AirwaysBritish Airways BA2237
11h 15
11:35LGW London Gatwick
15:50SJO San Jose Juan Santamaria
Arrives: Wed, 3 May 2017Journey duration: 24h 20

mission

and how much was that?
and how am i suppose to get from heathrow to gatwick?
BA does not fly directly to San Jose - i've checked that - they connect in the states with another airline.

moneypenny20

I have absolutely no idea, not an airline bod, had nothing else to do so I just looked at Costa Rica's destinations, avoided US and weird 2 bit airlines and went from there. It does look like the worse possible place to go to from Dubai though. Hope you work something out.

mission

*sigh* - thank you lol

scrubbedexpat141

I dunno. Train? Bus? Hire a car and drive between them (my Dad's done this, easy)?
It didn't say any more stops, just one in London.
It was 7 or 8,000 dizzers.

Frankly, if I were you I'd just pick somewhere better to go.

mission

at this rate, i might have to change destinations

Miss Ann Thrope

The only way you will be able to do this trip on one airline is with a US carrier as only US carriers will be able to fly to and from US to different countries. EK can only fly from US to UAE, not from the US to any other country. The US, as far as I know, does not allow any fifth freedom flights for foreign carriers where the inbound carrier can make an onward journey to another country (like EK Dubai-Lusaka-Harare or Dubai-Rio-Buenos Aires).

Even then, you may find that you THINK you are booking on one carrier as you will have flight codes with prefixes from one airline, say United: UA123 DXB-ORD connecting with UA4567 OED-SJO (made-up examples). However, the second flight may well be operated by a different carrier who do a codeshare with United allowing United to sell seats on their plane with a UA code (like EK do with Qantas for some Australian flights to Europe via Dubai). This will typically be with fellow members of their alliance (UA formed Star Alliance for example) so they have at least some common shared responsibility. The giveaway usually is if one of the flights has a four digit code: this usually, but not always, indicates a code-share operated by another carrier. But I wouldn't be too concerned about this as it should be seamless with one check-in and boarding passes issued for both flights and luggage checked through to destination..

You can also get a through ticket without an explicit code-share using two different airlines through the website of the main carrier (EK or EY or QA will offer this). In this case you also check in at the start all the way to the destination including luggage but the connecting flight is on a different airline with that airline's code. That is fairly common and usually works fine as any delay causing a missed connection or lost luggage will have to be resolved by both airlines. I'm doing this later this year with EK connecting to an Air Europa flight for example and have done it before with the only problem arising because the inbound EK flight was late and I had to sprint across Copenhagen airport (not a pretty sight I can tell you). That could have happened with any connection.

Brains1983

Dubai - Zurich - New York - San Jose - 30hours
San Jose - Newark - Zurich - Dubai - 23hours

Stop off in New York for a night on the way out, Zurich on the way back to break it up. 6,900 Dibs including tax.

scrubbedexpat141

100%.

To spend 24+ hours travelling to get to the Caribbean is pointless I think.

mission

Since all the non US airlines do not fly from the US to San Jose, i have no choice but to connect with a US airline and the flight times are approx 4 hrs and so i guess that isn't too bad - my challenge is finding an airline directly from here to the states with just the one connection, without paying an arm and leg for it....otherwise it would have to be the standard 2 stopovers...and the challenge here is the number of layover hrs

as much as appreciate this, i don't want to break up the flight by staying overnight or having more than 4-5 hrs layover

Brains1983

Through ticket with Lufthansa. so bags would already be checked through if your not taking stop offs.